Resource Review – Strad (A Virtual Family Office Platform)

Looking for a way to deliver a true virtual family office experience – without having to build a family-office infrastructure from scratch?

I recently sat down with Russell Dow for a behind-the-scenes walkthrough of STRAD Pro, a virtual family office platform designed to help advisors bring a higher level of organization, coordination, and service to mass affluent and high-net-worth clients.

In this interview, Russ walks through what STRAD is, how it works, and why it can become a powerful “missing piece” in an advisor’s client service model – especially for advisors looking to differentiate in a crowded market.

You’ll see how STRAD helps centralize a client’s financial life (accounts, assets, documents, planning items, and tasks) and supports a more coordinated experience across a client’s other professionals (CPA, estate attorney, trust officer, etc.). We also discuss security and compliance (SOC 2 Type II), permissioning, and how STRAD can layer alongside an existing tech stack.

You can watch the video interview below and the full transcript follows.

NOTE: The demo begins immediately and includes a full walkthrough of the platform – including the advisor view, client view, document vault, task management, and generational family features.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Sharon:
If you are an advisor who wants to deliver a true virtual family office experience – and I see a lot of advisors moving in this direction – you are going to love this.

Today I’m sitting down with Russell Dow for an inside look at STRAD Pro: what it is, how it works, and why it might be the missing piece in your client service model.

Russ, thank you for joining me today. I really appreciate it. Let’s start with the big question – what exactly is STRAD Pro?

Russell:
Pleased to be here, Sharon. STRAD Pro is designed to bring the family office dynamic to the mass affluent.

When someone reaches ultra-wealth levels, they typically create a physical family office – a dedicated team working exclusively for that family. But that’s out of reach for most people. You generally need hundreds of millions of dollars to consider a physical family office.

What we’ve built is a virtual family office – an online platform – for the mass affluent: households with hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of dollars, even up to hundreds of millions.

STRAD Pro enables an advisor – financial advisor, CPA, or other professional – to deliver that family office experience to their clients.

Sharon:
I saw a taste of this recently and thought, “I can’t be the only one who looks at this and says, wow – where do I sign?” I think a lot of advisors would benefit just from seeing it.

If you don’t mind, I’d love for you to run through a demo so other advisors can see it as well.

Russell:
Happy to. This platform is an outgrowth of our own advisory practice. We spun it out as a separate entity to provide it to other advisors.

It’s what I’ve always wanted as a financial advisor – for my clients and for my own family.

It’s SOC 2 Type II compliant, has multi-factor authentication, and meets high security standards. It can also be white-labeled, so a firm can add its own logo.

Let me sign in and give you a tour.

The ultra-wealthy have a family office and a team that works only for them. Advisors typically serve many families, and each family has different professional relationships – CPA, attorney, trust officer, loan officer – but the consistent person is usually the financial advisor.

STRAD is designed to help the advisor manage that one-to-many dynamic.

Here you can see the principals and their family, along with other professionals involved with the household.

One of the goals is to give the advisor clarity, but also to allow the advisor to bring other professionals into the picture as needed by sharing relevant information in a secure, permissioned way.

At the top, STRAD is organized into “Finances” and “Family Life.” Finances includes everything money touches – the areas professionals most often need. Family Life includes things like doctors and lifestyle items, but we’ll focus on the financial side.

We can track the people involved, and then assets – including account aggregation. STRAD uses Plaid to link outside accounts.

Just documenting what’s owned, who owns it, and how it’s owned can be a big step forward for most families.

There are also non-financial assets – homes, cars – including liens, cost basis, and other details that often get lost over time.

I should point out there is a client portal, so the client can log in and add information as well.

There’s a tax and planning section. For example, tax preparation allows a customized list of everything a CPA needs each year, which the client can complete and share.

Trust and estates is where legal documents can be stored, accessed, and discussed. This often adds immediate value because you can ask, “When was the last time your estate plan was updated?” and actually see what’s current.

There’s also an executive view – AI can summarize legal documents to save time.

Another powerful feature is the generational view – seeing the family across generations. Many clients still have living parents, meaning a significant portion of their inheritance hasn’t transferred yet. Often adult children are stepping in to help parents, and this view helps advisors support the broader family dynamic.

Sharon:
I love that. Just today I was trying to track down information about a grandchild and had to scroll through a lot of notes to figure out who belonged to who. Having everything organized visually like this saves a lot of time.

And you’re showing documents – so this also works as a secure document vault for sharing documents with clients and for them to upload files to us, right?

Russell:
Correct. There’s a document center where documents can be housed, and you can create your own categories.

Sharon:
Quick question – cybersecurity is top of mind for everyone. What level of security do you have?

Russell:
We’re SOC 2 Type II compliant – the highest level for financial organizations. Everything is encrypted at rest and in transit.

Sharon:
Perfect. Thank you.

Russell:
Another feature I use every day is task management.

When a client calls or emails, there are usually one to three actions that need to happen. STRAD includes task management inside the family office. You can create tasks, assign them, add due dates, create recurring tasks, and track progress.

Tasks roll up to a centralized dashboard, which I use daily to prioritize and work through what needs to be done. It helps ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

You also asked about permissioning. Each individual can be given access, and you control which pages they can see and whether they can view or edit.

A personal example: when my wife and I updated our estate plan and started working with a new attorney, I asked him to log into our family office before our meeting. We shared the pages he needed, and it made the first meeting far more productive. He already understood our family and circumstances and could immediately focus on what we wanted to accomplish.

STRAD becomes an effective way to set up the family office first, then share it with the estate planning attorney to make the entire process smoother.

Sharon:
Absolutely.

Russell:
If a client owns a business, you can also build out a business office inside STRAD. Instead of husband, wife, and children, you have an executive team. Instead of an estate planning attorney, you have a business attorney and potentially different tax advisors.

This makes it possible to provide two family offices – one personal, one for the business.

Sharon:
That adds a whole other layer of prospecting and ways to talk to business owners that many advisors wouldn’t have in their toolbox.

Russell:
Exactly. I believe we’re changing the dynamic. There will be a time when everyone has a family office.

Every family needs a family office, and every family office needs one – and only one – family office CFO. Being the advisor leading that is a major benefit to families and a major differentiator for the advisor.

Sharon:
I love that.

We had a client looking for a “leave-behind” system – something that says, “If something happens to me, here is where all important information can be found.” Many people start with a spreadsheet or a book. I see STRAD as leveling that up dramatically – everything accessible, organized, and shareable, which makes transitions and planning so much easier.

Russell:
We see that as well. Often older couples – especially wives – are very interested because they know they may outlive their spouse or may need clarity if something changes cognitively. Children also benefit when they need to step in. STRAD makes it much easier to understand the full scope: who the advisors are, what the accounts are, where key documents live.

Sharon:
Quick question – for firms already using a CRM, document vault, or planning software, how do you recommend layering STRAD in without disrupting an existing tech stack?

Russell:
STRAD can slide in alongside whatever a firm already uses. It doesn’t have to replace anything on day one.

Over time, it can replace certain functions because it’s so useful – including prospecting and CRM-style features – but it doesn’t have to.

One immediate use case is prospecting: you can show this demo to prospects to illustrate how you’re different. It’s highly visual. When prospects compare firms, many offer planning and portfolio management, but a virtual family office experience is a differentiator.

As the industry becomes more commoditized, differentiation matters.

Sharon:
A couple questions come to mind. Advisor view versus client view: what does a client see when they log in?

Russell:
The client view is very similar but doesn’t include the backend dashboard for lead, prospecting, and firm-level task dashboards. It’s limited to their family office.

The firm’s logo can be shown, and the layout is the same, just scoped to the household.

Sharon:
How receptive are compliance departments to advisors using this?

Russell:
So far, highly receptive. It supports deeper know-your-client practices and adds integrity. It’s harder for someone to spoof being a client when information is organized and verified. You know the power of attorney agents, the CPA, who should be calling – it reduces fraud risk and improves clarity.

Sharon:
If someone wants to sign up, what onboarding support is included, and how long does it take to get up and running?

Russell:
They can go to strad.com and start a free trial and self-register.

In about five minutes, you can go from not offering a family office service to offering one.

With the free trial, you get a demo family office you can use for client and prospect meetings. We also provide significant white-glove onboarding and support to help you get familiar and implement it effectively.

Sharon:
Good. Nothing worse than signing up for a program and then not getting support.

Russell:
We aim for intuitive, but support is there to walk you through anything you need.

Sharon:
Perfect. If someone wants to sign up, they just go to strad.com?

Russell:
Yes – strad.com. If they sign up for a free trial, we’ll have their email and we’ll follow up.

Sharon:
Perfect. Thank you so much for sharing this with me and with everyone watching. I really appreciate your time, and I look forward to clicking that free trial button and setting up our free trial ;-).

Russell:
Thank you, Sharon. Much appreciated.